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Just in time for the beginning of summer and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ new season, a local football fan has found a way to avoid getting off his deck chair and away from his television to grab another brew.

Paul Carr has his yellow Labrador retriever to go to the refrigerator for him.

“He’s called an American heel Lab, but I call him the great Canadian beer Lab,” Carr told the Winnipeg Sun on Tuesday, as his dog Murphy sat ready to fetch cans of ale from inside a small fridge in a Transcona back yard. “Could you have anything better than your dog to get beer for you?”

Perhaps not. The 45-year-old millwright proved he might be the envy of couch potatoes everywhere. Upon the simple instruction, “Murphy, get me a beer,” the three-year-old male Lab promptly went to the fridge, nudged it open with its snout, picked up a can in its mouth and carried one to Carr.

And, with another such request, Murphy made a second trip and carried a beer to Carr’s friend Neil McEwan.

After realizing when Murphy was a puppy that he has a knack for learning tricks, the beer stunt is the latest.

“If he’s going to fetch slippers, he may as well fetch me a beer. That’s how it kind of started,” Carr said, adding the pooch figured out on his own how to open the fridge.

“I got tired of running back and forth. So I thought, ‘Let’s get Murphy to earn his keep.’ And within two minutes, he had it figured out. Now, he’s fetching beers for everybody. He loves it. He’s excited about it. And, well, he gets a carrot afterward too. That helps.”

The four-legged server has, understandably, become a hit with Carr’s friends.

“He was a blessing before he did this. But now that he can get me my beer, he’s invaluable. You can’t put a price on this dog,” Carr said.

“I haven’t tried different brands of beer yet. He always brings the same brand from the fridge. I might be able to teach him to get a Coke or a Pepsi. He’s pretty smart,” he added. “But if I put some meat in there, he might go for the meat first.”

So far, Carr has found only minor flaws in Murphy’s service.

“He’s only punctured maybe three cans,” he said. “And they can be a little slobbery.”